Top 25 Lean Tools

The Big Idea – Lean has a very extensive collection of tools and concepts. Surveying the most important of these, understanding both what they are and how they can help is an excellent way to get started.

There are a lot of great ideas to explore in lean. So where should you begin?

One way to start is to survey the most important lean tools, with a brief description and short explanation of how each tool can improve your manufacturing operations.

If a tool captures your interest or resonates with you in some way – explore it further to decide if it is something to pursue now…or later. Many of these tools can be successfully used in isolation, which makes it much easier to get started. On the other hand, the benefits will compound as more tools are used, as they do support and reinforce each other.

How does Kaizen help?

What is Kanban?

A method of regulating the flow of goods both within the factory and with outside suppliers and customers. Based on automatic replenishment through signal cards that indicate when more goods are needed.

How does Kanban help?

Eliminates waste from inventory and overproduction. Can eliminate the need for physical inventories (instead relying on signal cards to indicate when more goods need to be ordered).

What are KPIs?

Metrics designed to track and encourage progress towards critical goals of the organization. Strongly promoted KPIs can be extremely powerful drivers of behavior – so it is important to carefully select KPIs that will drive desired behavior.

How do KPIs help?

The best manufacturing KPIs:

Are aligned with top-level strategic goals (thus helping to achieve those goals)

Are effective at exposing and quantifying waste (OEE is a good example)

Are readily influenced by plant floor employees (so they can drive results)

How does Muda help?

What is Overall Equipment Effectiveness?

Framework for measuring productivity loss for a given manufacturing process. Three categories of loss are tracked:

Availability (e.g. down time)

Performance (e.g. slow cycles)

Quality (e.g. rejects)

How does Overall Equipment Effectiveness help?

Provides a benchmark/baseline and a means to track progress in eliminating waste from a manufacturing process. 100% OEE means perfect production (manufacturing only good parts, as fast as possible, with no down time).

How does Poka-Yoke help?

What is Root Cause Analysis?

A problem solving methodology that focuses on resolving the underlying problem instead of applying quick fixes that only treat immediate symptoms of the problem. A common approach is to ask why five times – each time moving a step closer to discovering the true underlying problem.

How does Root Cause Analysis help?

Helps to ensure that a problem is truly eliminated by applying corrective action to the “root cause” of the problem.

What is Total Productive Maintenance?

A holistic approach to maintenance that focuses on proactive and preventative maintenance to maximize the operational time of equipment. TPM blurs the distinction between maintenance and production by placing a strong emphasis on empowering operators to help maintain their equipment.

How does Total Productive Maintenance help?

Creates a shared responsibility for equipment that encourages greater involvement by plant floor workers. In the right environment this can be very effective in improving productivity (increasing up time, reducing cycle times, and eliminating defects).